Notes from a presentation by the Cougar Conservancy, part of our continuing education as docents at Malibu Creek State Park.
lion talk
Tag: mammals
Marmota monax
It’s Groundhog Day! The groundhog, also known as the woodchuck (along with a bunch of other monikers), is a rodent of the family Sciuridae, belonging to the group of large ground squirrels known as marmots. Despite the popular tongue-twister, the etymology of the name woodchuck is unrelated to wood or chucking. It stems from an Algonquian (possibly Narragansett) name for the animal, wuchak.
Lynx rufus
Thank you, nature, for the best gift — a bobcat sighting!
Acinonyx jubatus
In celebration of International Cheetah Day, I attended an interesting session with John Muir Laws and the Cheetah Conservation Fund.
paint it black
Sketching black things with John Muir Laws, learning to see tones and colours within the darks.
Lynx rufus
We bought some new skulls for the Visitor Center (legally and ethically obtained).
Neogale frenata
Click to enbiggen.
Thomomys bottae
I’m not a big fan of gophers, given the subterranean damage they wreak, but I’ve learned to live with them, and even save their lives on occasion.
Thomomys bottae
Yesterday morning in the Park, some people found a newborn gopher in the middle of a wide, well-traveled trail and didn’t know what to do with it. The blind, hairless little thing was shorter than an adult thumb. It was way too young to try to rehabilitate, so we advised them to return it close to where it was found, just in case the mama came back for it.
I’ve had the same thing happen myself, with a newborn rabbit. In both cases the mystery was how the baby got to the middle of a bare trail. Was it dropped by a bird of prey? Carried there by its mother?
red rock canyon
Bodie is a herding dog, not a hunting dog. So it was very surprising when she sniffed in the grass beside the trail, then suddenly lunged and caught a rodent of some kind. It was bigger than a mouse, but smaller than a gopher, and its tail was shorter than a rat’s but not gopher-like. She ignored my commands to drop it, and crunched for a minute before swallowing it. Ugh! Sorry, little critter!
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